Kit Review

Straight build + Stickers

One Piece Red Force - Size comparison with a cigarette pack. It's nice and big, as you'd expect from a large One Piece kit af

Size comparison with a cigarette pack.
It's nice and big, as you'd expect from a large One Piece kit after quite a while.

One Piece Red Force - Various angles (1/8)

One Piece Red Force - Various angles (2/8)

One Piece Red Force - Various angles (3/8)

One Piece Red Force - Various angles (4/8)

One Piece Red Force - Various angles (5/8)

One Piece Red Force - Various angles (6/8)

Various angles

One Piece Red Force - Detail shots (1/5)

One Piece Red Force - Detail shots (2/5)

One Piece Red Force - Detail shots (3/5)

Detail shots

Underside view

Figures of Shanks, Ben Beckman, Yasopp, and Lucky Roux are included.

The figures placed on board the ship.

One Piece Red Force - With the figures on board, it's got a real atmosphere to it. (1/3)

With the figures on board, it's got a real atmosphere to it.

Together with Bandai's One Piece large ship series —
The Going Merry and the Thousand Sunny.

Compared to the Going Merry, this one feels noticeably more complex and intricate.

Together with the Grandship Collection Red Force.

Straight build

Bandai's One Piece lineup has mostly been focused on the compact Grandship Collection sets, but now after a good while, we've got a large ship model in the form of the Red Force. It's Shanks' pirate ship — Luffy's mentor — and its defining feature is the multiple smaller-sized sails it carries.

Right off the bat, it's structurally more complex and more colorful than the previous entries like the Going Merry and Thousand Sunny, so the finished look after a straight build with seals applied is seriously impressive. The major sections — cannons, sails, masts, palm trees, and so on — are cleanly color separated, and anything that falls short is covered by seals, so the overall color accuracy is very much on-brand for Bandai. The catch, though, is that you'll end up spending more time applying seals than actually building the kit — but that's pretty much a common trait across the One Piece series.

The overall build feel is smooth and satisfying, and even though it looks nothing like a Gunpla, the way the parts snap together so perfectly just makes you go "yep, that's Bandai!" — in the best way. One thing to watch out for, though: attaching the front sails to the hull can get a bit tricky structurally, so if you don't follow the manual carefully and take it slow, the sails can end up interfering with the hull. (Hard to explain in words, but you'll know what I mean once you're building it. ^^;)

Four figures are included — Shanks, Ben Beckman, Yasopp, and Lucky Roux. The sculpts are nice, but they come molded in a single color, so painting is pretty much a must. Other than that, there aren't any special gimmicks to speak of, so this is really a kit you just display and admire as-is — feel free to just sit back and enjoy the photos as you read through the review.

Anyway, setting aside variants, this is the third original large One Piece ship model, and the finished look after a straight build with seals applied is the best in the series by far. If you're a Shanks fan, this is absolutely not one to miss!! :-)

Red Force | 2015. 11 | ¥4,200

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.